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Five dollars does not always equal five dollars. Well, I mean, it does but you could definitely stretch your dollar better in another country. Take bananas, for example, $5 gets you 8.5 pounds of it in America but $5 in Ethiopia gets you a whopping 25 pounds of bananas! And more importantly: beer. In China…
In a book called Branding Terror, Francesco Trivini Bellini and former United Nations counter-terrorism analyst Artur Beifuss compiled the logos and brand identities of terrorist organizations “from al-Qaeda to the Real IRA” and analyzed them as they would any logo. It’s fascinating to approach the identity of the terrorists from a graphic design perspective. Branding…
We’ve seen planes create a fiery vortex in the sky before, but here’s a more peaceful version of it happening in real time. It’s majestically beautiful. The wingtip vortices formed when an Airbus A340 landed at Zurich Airport on a foggy night. Though it looks gorgeous, vortices can be pretty dangerous. https://gizmodo.com/the-coast-guard-creates-a-fiery-vortex-in-the-sky-5919857 Wingtip vortices occur…
Google’s New York City office has something that every office in America needs: secret rooms hidden by swiveling bookshelves. If you’re not in the know, you wouldn’t know it existed. But if you do have Batman access at Google, you can pull the correct book and expose a whole ‘nother world. Or something like that.…
It’s every generation’s responsibility to grow old and become cranky at the next generation while talking about how growing up back then was so much more fun than growing up today. THESE KIDS KNOW NOTHING. All they do is stare at iPads and play crappy games by swiping on giant phones. At least we 90’s…
Earlier today we talked about the Living Building Challenge, a certification system that rates the sustainability of a building over the course of a year. Here’s a follow-up about 23 Park Place, a Park Slope townhouse designed by Fabrica718 that’s probably the most energy efficient home in the city, thanks to its Passive House certification.…
Remember when you were in preschool, sitting around in a circle, whispering a message from person to person until it reached the last kid in the chain and was completely different? As part of his “Digital Humor Theory” thesis, Pratt Institute graduate student Michael J. Silber did just that with Siri’s text-to-voice and Google’s voicemail…
While we’ll still have to wait a bit for Lytro powers to come to our smartphones on a hardware level, we can at least approximate the neat little camera’s refocusing powers with what we’ve already got. And this is where FocusTwist for iOS steps in. https://gizmodo.com/how-your-smartphone-will-get-lytro-like-superpowers-5988341 What’s it do? Lytro employs light-field technology when it…
There’s a good chance your dishwasher fills with nasty, dirty dishes well before you get around to doing a load. And that breeds bacteria that can lead to an awful smell in your kitchen; a consequence of laziness that this UV disinfectant lamp promises to eliminate. The microscopic murderous benefits of ultraviolet light have been…
Hopefully, this won’t cause any ecological disasters in Legoland. This ridiculously massive Lego oil rig is more than 3 feet tall and wide, and weights over 92 pounds. According to The Brothers Brick, Lego master Tobias Vogt spent three months building this, and it shows in the detailed build-out. Not only does the outside of…
These Airmen sure make jumping out of the back of massive transport helicopter under the roar of spinning rotors look good. It looks like they’re just chilling up there standing on air. They’re defying physics—with the help of a photographer, of course. There’s nothing peaceful about jumping out of a MH-47 Chinook, but there’s an…
Breaking: The White House has Vined! The White House has Vined! It’s a predetermined fact that all political entities will eventually seize to every form social media in an effort to “speak to kids”. And the White House totally killed the casting for its first Vine. Say hello to Levar Burton an Bill Nye. It’s…
The SandwichBike not only sounds delicious in name, it’s delightfully customizable. It comes to you in the mail, and you assemble it all by yourself. And though that sounds daunting, it’s supposed to be insanely easy. The Sandwichbike was designed by Basten Leijh, who completely rethought what you’d think of as far as a traditional…
Oh, hey, Netflix is getting wise, finally. In its quarterly money-talking-numbers session, CEO Reed Hastings let out that Netflix is going to introduce a new $12 per month plan for families that lets them stream four shows at once. The old $8 stream-only plan has a limit of two simultaneous streams. Some other interesting facts…
The idea of an edible utensil isn’t exactly new, but nothing’s been quite as convenient (and non-sticky) as Triangle Tree’s brilliant if not entirely appetizing-appearing Eco-Spoon. https://gizmodo.com/theres-a-special-nobel-prize-for-the-genius-behind-thes-5963895 This overgrown Frito has been lovingly sculpted out of corn and other all-natural ingredients into a stubby, bottom heavy spoon for all your dining needs. But not all…
Teotihuacan, an ancient, abandoned city about an hour north of Mexico City, was once one of the largest cities in the world. It collapsed centuries ago (thanks either to an internal uprising or foreign invaders, depending on who you ask), but it’s never been completely deserted, since the ruins have always been a magnet for…
It’s early morning. Your phone is screaming at you. Unless you open your eyes and seek out place to touch, it’ll never stop. But the Tangible Alarm could bring back the eyes-closes snooze-button flailing of days gone by. A concept by Victor Johansson, the Tangible Alarm would provide a backup for your phones built-in alarm.…
Do you use Gmail a lot? Then you need to see this graphic with all the keyboard shortcuts that can make like a million times easier. It comes complete with visualizations of each action, for some reference of what you’re actually accomplishing. The shortcuts aren’t a big secret, but the value of the graph, aside…
Forget your SOG, your Leatherman, your Gerber, your Victorinox, even your Wenger. You can fill them with every known tool and accessory under the sun, but they’ll never come close to being as useful as this USB charging multitool is in this day of mobile electronics. Available from FredFlare for a mere $20, this brilliant…
The most important—and expensive—coffee gadget for a home cupper is a burr grinder. Good coffee requires even extraction, and no matter how many fancy coffee makers you own, if you’re not using a burr grinder, you won’t be able to achieve the consistent grinds necessary for most coffee recipes, especially if you want to make…
